Staying In

Free Contemporary Dance From Sadler's Wells

Sadler’s Wells – London’s home of contemporary dance – is named after the ancient monastic wells that were discovered on the site when the original ‘Musick Hall’ was built there in 1683.

Mr. Sadler quickly started advertising the wells’ waters as curing all sorts of ailments, including dropsy, scurvy, and “other distempers to which females are liable—ulcers, fits of the mother, virgin’s fever and hypochondriacal distemper.”

The jury’s out on whether the waters could see off coronavirus, but in the meantime, Sadler’s Wells are at least able to ease the impact of lockdown by bringing some of their world-class entertainment into your living room.

They’re joining the National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe and the Royal Opera House in offering up a schedule of free online streams, screening some of the most beautiful, jaw-dropping dance shows to have graced their stage in recent years. They’re being screened weekly via their Facebook pages, and will each be available to view for 7 days after.

BalletBoyz – Deluxe/George Piper

It kicked off last Friday with the première of Deluxe by the award-winning BalletBoyz, celebrating 20 years of the all-male troupe. Choreographed by an all-female team, it debuted online at the same time they were due to perform on stage for the first time – and the online version has already scored a slew of 4* and 5* reviews.

It’ll soon be on iPlayer, or you can catch up with it on Facebook until this Friday (3rd April), when they’ll be premiering their second show. This’ll be a new take on Rumpelstiltskin; a collaboration between acclaimed dance company balletLORENT and former Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. They’re hoping to recast the wee imp as a misunderstood outsider (which will take some doing, considering he was going about tricking imprisoned women into giving him their firstborns).

The rest of the schedule is yet to be announced, but already confirmed are TOM, a dance-for-camera installation combining breakdancing with animation and film projections; and online dance classes for kids and the over-60s.

Everything else will be released… in stages.

NOTE: You can find out more about the Sadler’s Wells Digital Stage here, or watch streams now via their Facebook.